A report on what it means to be homeless and in #prostitution in Germany during #COVIDー19. Women deserve shelter, food and a long-term plan for steady income - not careless sexually entitled men and a potentially deadly virus. This is #NeitherSexNorWork.
Listen carefully: Yes, #COVIDー19 makes the women's situation extra precarious, but it was nowhere near humane and freely chosen before. The women are making 5-20 euro on the street per man which is enough for food - everything else is only available on a busy day.
The reporter tells us: They had to be careful while filming. Why? Not because police patrols although they've become another burden for women, as we're temporarily back to full prohibition - but because the legal industry is a criminal milieu!
Can we collectively end the illusion that #prostitution is safer when visible? If you watch what happens on the street you will see: Pimps taking money off of women, drug dealers and drug use, men who just paid a woman to access her body throwing her out of the car. Safer how?
See the johns not even scared to talk on camera: They're breaking the law due to Corona right now, but on a non-pandemic day everything they do is either completely legal or there is no meaningful system in place where women can report violence.
Reporter asks the john buying women off the street during #COVIDー19 : "But aren't you worried about contracting #Corona? You realize it happens through droplet infection?" His reply: "But I don't kiss'm anyway."
I don't want to live in a world where a woman has to be thankful that a man picked her up off the street to get his rocks off in a public toilet during a pandemic after she waited three hours during heavy snow fall . Will not sign off on a system that accepts this & call it work.
Social worker on the situation of women in #prostitution on the streets of Berlin during and before #COVIDー19: "Women say they can't report rape, even if they have his car number. They won't make any more money, if they do. Or they say: 'We just have to live with that'".
For the people who want to believe that these situations are exclusive to the streets and that indoor #prostitution, especially in small apartments with 1-3 women is much better - find out for yourselves (WARNING: Explicit descriptions of sexual violence): dieunsichtbarenmaenner.wordpress.com/tag/apartment-…
If you have money to give or a platform to share this emergancy fund for women like Zhana stuck in Berlin street #prostitution during #COVIDー19. The money will go directly to aid their varying needs: Food, shelter, health care, legal aid, exit service: gofundme.com/f/notfonds-fur…
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The life of Joop Wilhelmus - an exemplary tale of many a "#sexualrevolution|ary's" extreme hatred of women and children...🧵
Joop Wilhelmus is born in 1944, son of a Communist, sent at an early age to GDR socialist fraternization camps. Begins writing in leftwing papers at 14. Noticed for his braggadocio, claims of having first had sex at 12 years of age, and attracting "hot chicks" with his politics.
Jumping on the bandwagon of the sexual revolution in the 60s he soon becomes one of the Netherlands' most notorious pornographers, founding (among others) the adult porn magazine "Chick" in 1968. His fans are proud of the fact that he is hated by "the bourgeoisie and feminists".
There's a new website educating about the largely forgotten and understudied history of Nazi military brothel networks during WWII by German feminist historian Anne S. Respondek. "The male right to sex" in full brutal force looks like this... 🧵wehrmachtsbordelle.de/2023/09/12/gla…
During their time in power the Nazi war machine established a brothel network stretching entire occupied territory. Brothels catered to (nearly) every sector of the male population incl. not just soldiers, SS, police and elites, but military allies, workers and even camp inmates.
The history is glossed over in large part because post-war Germany still maintained its hatred of prostituted/sexually exploited women while also wanting to justify its continuance of the prostitution system (openly in the West, covertly in the East).
One of Germanys biggest news magazines, Der Spiegel, headlines:
"We will be ashamed"
Deploring 20 years of failed German #prostitution policy.
Here's the story of how the law let women down, the people (often survivors) ringing the alarm & the politicians admitting the mistake
The article opens with the story of "Lena" (20), the victim of a "loverboy" pimp, a trafficker who makes their victim think they're in a loving relationship - in Lena's case a martial arts world champion. Atypical about her story is that he got sentenced to 6 years and 3 months.
Lena's story is not a singular case, the article explains. There are countless women and some men & trans people trafficked to Germany annually. Most traffickers dont have a day in court nevermind the men literally paying to rape, the latter's actions are only criminal since 2017
Every femicide in the sex trade warrants action and no country is doing enough to stop men using lethal violence against women in #prostitution. But the radio silence on the recent case of a woman murdered in a German apartment brothel, compared to the Irish case is deafening.
I don't think anyone can prove their case on what policy is better based on homicide data alone because as far as I'm aware no country is tracking murders of women in prostitution specifically. The cases and survivor reports we do have indicate lethal violence is a concern always
In any country, call it "legalization", "liberalization" or "decrim" women in #prostitution are given advice on how to not get robbed, raped, and murdered on the job from organizations that speak of #sexwork. Clearly, it remains a significant concern under all models of law.
Reading about legal experts and sexologists who work with child rapists repeatedly going "oh, if they'd just pay someone 18+ for it, it's totally fine!" and the totally fine thing is cutting someone's skin or keeping someone in a basement for a dozen men a day. I'm furious.
Women in prostitution are not sponges for rape and abuse. Not only are men very capable of raping both their stepdaughter and the barely 18-year-old woman at the brothel, a disproportionately large number of women in the sex trade are themselves child sexual abuse survivors.
Some women in the sex trade have reported that men tell them "I chose you because you look like my niece/daughter/granddaughter/student". How does that make her feel esp. considering the significant chance she is a survivor of incest/child abuse? Why are "experts" endorsing this?
Having made terrible experiences with window #prostitution in Amsterdam, the city plans to build a mega-brothel euphemistically called an "erotic center" instead. 100 women in rooms plus social and health service, security, hospitality, entertainment, education & cultural events.
In Germany, we call these places "mega brothels" and we have many of them. The biggest is the Pascha brothel in Cologne with 150 individual rooms. Such places may also include strip clubs, restaurants, spaces for concerts and business meetings. None of this has made women safe.
Not only are mega-brothels dehumanizing to the women in it, presenting them often based on "flavor" as in sorted by race or transgender status, bouncers and cameras have not made them remotely safe. The Pascha in Cologne has seen drug and human trafficking + 1 murder & 2 attempts